Now she sank to her knees on the wooden floor and tugged a pin out of her hair; all the doors were locked from the inside at ten o’clock. In less than forty seconds, she’d unlocked the door to the yard outside and was back on her feet. She swung the door open and shivered at the blast of freezing wind.
Nothing and nobody to the left, nor to the right. The outside field area was still and empty in the moonlight, and she took a deep breath.
“OK,” she said out loud and hearing her own voice seemed to steady her. “Here we go.”
Iris tugged the coat tighter around her to protect herself from the cold, then she paused. A wild burst of stupid courage rose in her, higher and stronger, a roaring rebellious need to say a few defiant words on her way out the door. A final departing shot like an old
